I guess this year not hearing right away isn't as bad. last year it was pretty much: hear back within a week or so or else wait until late march to be rejected or wait-listed. Now one can at least hope for getting held and maybe getting in in March or April. Anyways, anyone willing to venture a guess how many holds have gone out? Is being held that bad? I always thought my best scenario was a WL/in so I'm thrilled to have the opportunity for a nice LOCI essay and two great letters of rec. Sure I know maybe only like 10-20% of holds will get in but thats still a decent chance.

I guess this year not hearing right away isn't as bad. last year it was pretty much: hear back within a week or so or else wait until late march to be rejected or wait-listed. Now one can at least hope for getting held and maybe getting in in March or April. Anyways, anyone willing to venture a guess how many holds have gone out? Is being held that bad? I always thought my best scenario was a WL/in so I'm thrilled to have the opportunity for a nice LOCI essay and two great letters of rec. Sure I know maybe only like 10-20% of holds will get in but thats still a decent chance.

I guess this year not hearing right away isn't as bad. last year it was pretty much: hear back within a week or so or else wait until late march to be rejected or wait-listed. Now one can at least hope for getting held and maybe getting in in March or April. Anyways, anyone willing to venture a guess how many holds have gone out? Is being held that bad? I always thought my best scenario was a WL/in so I'm thrilled to have the opportunity for a nice LOCI essay and two great letters of rec. Sure I know maybe only like 10-20% of holds will get in but thats still a decent chance.

4910 wrote:damn really? about a third of the applicant pool being held?

looking at lsn there are 22 people who mark themselves as held (probably more that since many don't list anything and are just pending), 102 accepted, 121 rejected out of 775 applicants (about 10% of the applicant pool). I think we can pretty safely assume that the LSN sample is skewed as 102 acceptances is around 13% of the total acceptances (and likely as much as 25% of those admitted so far). If (and thats a big if) the percent held on LSN follows the same pattern the number total held so far is anywhere between 100 and 250. Most likely not many more holds are going to go out since there is no point holding a january applicant.

I haven't heard of ANY JR1 emails going out past the 22nd except for Zara's JR1 email that went out on the 28th... the phone interview thread has been dead and NO ONE else here has mentioned getting a JR1 after the 22nd.

Here is a list of people who have gone under review in January for at least 7 days and still haven't gotten a JR1 email:

By all accounts any of us 4 should at least be interesting enough to get a JR1, yet all of us have waited well beyond a week since going "Under Review" and still haven't heard anything. I don't think any of us have black spots on our applications either.

I'm really just hoping that J.R. had to spread out his calls more due to the flood of January apps. They might be waiting for a the next big calling push in February once they have a better idea what their remaining applicant pool will look like. But that's all just conjecture.

I'm not quite at a week yet. I went UR on Wednesday last week. But it does seem like the JR1 emails have slowed to a trickle recently; no one but Zara has reported one for a while (and that one came the day after I went UR, so I wouldn't have expected to get one at the same time).

It would make sense if the office were too busy dealing with the deluge of late-January apps to prepare for JR1s, and that the emails will pick up again later this week or early next week. Here's to hoping.

Sogui wrote:Yea I've been obsessively checking this thread and LSN for JR1 calls.

I haven't heard of ANY JR1 emails going out past the 22nd except for Zara's JR1 email that went out on the 28th... the phone interview thread has been dead and NO ONE else here has mentioned getting a JR1 after the 22nd.

Here is a list of people who have gone under review in January for at least 7 days and still haven't gotten a JR1 email:

By all accounts any of us 4 should at least be interesting enough to get a JR1, yet all of us have waited well beyond a week since going "Under Review" and still haven't heard anything. I don't think any of us have black spots on our applications either.

I'm really just hoping that J.R. had to spread out his calls more due to the flood of January apps. They might be waiting for a the next big calling push in February once they have a better idea what their remaining applicant pool will look like. But that's all just conjecture.

Dignan and I have been waiting since early December with similar numbers. Join the club

crackberry wrote:Yeah I don't even think this is a question. No JR2 is way worse than no JR1.

+1 (even though I managed to get the JR2). the anxiety I felt after missing a round of JR2 was terrible, and I'm sure it gets worse as the weeks go by.

plus, who wants the self-doubt that you might have screwed up your chance at Harvard due to a five minute phone interview?

+1. it's like you let it slip through your fingers...i keep on going over the interview in my head, and wanting to shoot myself...also did not help that my host sister knocked on my door half way through and asked me if I wanted dinner and I, caught off guard, started umming and pausing

Core wrote:Some of us have been waiting for JR2's since November. You don't want to be in that club.

I don't know which one's worse, no JR1 or no JR2 but personally I'd like to have at least a JR1.

Both are tough situations. But I can attest that it's pretty excruciating to find out you have a ~75% chance of getting in, only to watch each passing Monday go by with no phone call.

Yeah I don't even think this is a question. No JR2 is way worse than no JR1.

On the other hand, though, a JR1 means that you're likely to be successful at some other slightly lower-ranked schools even if you don't get a JR2, since the JR1 process is itself so selective. So it bodes well for other apps.

just had my jr1, it lasted about 5 minutes. I think it went pretty well. I was clearly nervous but I didn't stumble over my words or anything. He was much more casual than I expected which helped. He seemed like he wanted it to be pretty short so I didnt get to talk about most of the things I had prepared to say. It went well...I think. He did kind of chuckle when I said I felt comfortable when I visited Harvard...probably hears that a lot. hope that isnt a bad thing. At least I didnt say anything ridiculous or crazy and he told me I sound like i have a really good focus for what I want to do. maybe that's good? Ahhh!

Core wrote:Some of us have been waiting for JR2's since November. You don't want to be in that club.

I don't know which one's worse, no JR1 or no JR2 but personally I'd like to have at least a JR1.

Yea in the short-term I'd hate to get a JR1 but no JR2, but at least I'd only have to sit by the phone one day a week as opposed to checking my inbox compulsively 5 days a week.

In the long-run I agree with Hanzo, it would do better for my self-esteem if I knew that Harvard at least thought I was interesting enough to talk to... as opposed to shutting me down without even an interview.

JR: Yea I took a look at your app, your numbers are fine but you are such a boring person that I didn't even have to talk to you to know you weren't Harvard material...

Core wrote:Some of us have been waiting for JR2's since November. You don't want to be in that club.

I don't know which one's worse, no JR1 or no JR2 but personally I'd like to have at least a JR1.

Yea in the short-term I'd hate to get a JR1 but no JR2, but at least I'd only have to sit by the phone one day a week as opposed to checking my inbox compulsively 5 days a week.

In the long-run I agree with Hanzo, it would do better for my self-esteem if I knew that Harvard at least thought I was interesting enough to talk to... as opposed to shutting me down without even an interview.

JR: Yea I took a look at your app, your numbers are fine but you are such a boring person that I didn't even have to talk to you to know you weren't Harvard material...

Precisely. I am slightly relieved by Columbia+Butler but no JR1 is like a slap in the face.

Zara wrote: he told me I sound like i have a really good focus for what I want to do. maybe that's good? Ahhh!

that sounds really good!!! you actually got a compliment from JR!

mine was 11 minutes, because i asked about the canceled PSI (was that risky?) and he spent some time defending that, saying they canceled it to transfer more funds and improve their LRAP...i asked about study abroad because i love traveling and i thought it was strange that he said, "yes we have lots of options, study clinic research blah blah blah abroad, if that's your thing" :/

i don't know if the length was that great of a factor - in fact many of the people who quickly got JR2s had shorter interviews, and i've had a history of blabbing on and then getting rejected --;